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78th Anniversary Tour! Airborne re- enactors with Utah Beach - H – Hour! Normandy Ceremonies on 6 June! Utah Beach Return! Cross it off your Bucket List in 2022! MHT has expanding our traditional D-Day tour to include more of the battle such as the crucial airborne drop zones behind the beaches. Of all the battles fought by United States in Europe during WWII, the breaching of Hitler’s Atlantic Wall is considered the most significant. This D-Day Tour has been designed to examine all aspects of this epic landing to in- clude the Official Ceremonies on 6 June. Please join us for a journey back in time. D-Day - June 6th, 1944. It has been 78 years but few events have galvanized a population and stirred the imagination like D-Day. As dawn broke over the beaches, thousands of real-life “Private Ryans”, British, French, Canadians and Americans, left the relative safety of their landing craft and stormed ashore to begin the Libera- tion of France. Join us at the Commemorations after dawn on the invasion beaches. No sleeping in Military Historical Tours is proud to offer another in our series of signature foxholes this time! European Battlefield Tours on this historic Seventy-Eighth Anniver- sary of D-Day. Our tours include exclusive MHT events, tour booklet Tour Price: $ 3,095* & sites other tours bypass. Information on the events that are of- (Based on Double Occupancy) fered on your particular expedition will be included in your registra- Single Room Supplement: $ 895* tion information packet. All of these things, along with the most ex- Tour Price Includes: perienced staff of Program Directors, Battlefield Tour Leaders and 4—Star Hotel Accommodations at Caen- Historians will combine to make your trip the most enjoyable, relax- Normandy & Paris ing, entertaining and educational experience possible. We welcome * your phone calls, letters or e-mails to discuss your tour with one of Air-conditioned deluxe motorcoach our Battlefield Specialists. Call us at 703-590-1295 we look forward with onboard restroom to hearing from you! * Emergency Medical & Evacuation Insurance Daily Itinerary * Meals as indicated in itinerary Day 1 – June 1 – Departure. De- * part today from your hometown air- Historical trip information packet, containing port for an International Portal for maps & other tour information. the flight to Charles De Gaulle Air- * port Paris (CDG). Dinner and bev- Admission fees to all sites, museums and erages served aboard flight. special attractions listed Day 2 - June 2 - Arrival in * France. Arrive at CDG in the Services of experienced Tour Leader morning and make your way to and English-speaking local guides. the rally point and make the drive Airfare not included: Get your own or to Normandy. Hotel: Caen Mo- Book Optional MHT Airfare: Round-trip derne Caen. Meals: L & D - economy or business class airfare On Own. from your hometown to Paris CDG Days 3 - 6 - June 3 - 6 - Norman- price quoted upon registration! dy. Our hotel in Caen will be our * - Price based on € conversion rate at final billing home base for exploring Normandy. Omaha Beach was the Airborne Divisions, was to se- most intensely contested beach on D-Day. It is six miles wide cure a beachhead on the Coten- – the largest of all the five beaches. The entire beach was tin Peninsula. The division only overlooked by cliffs which made attacking the area very diffi- lost 197 men during the day and cult. You will walk the sands where the liberation of France by the night of the 6th of June, began 74 years ago. 29th Infantry Division. Our tour will 20,000 men and 1,700 vehicles include the seawall, bunkers, and other German defenses were ashore. It was for his ac- along the beach. The western half of the beach was assigned tions that day that Brigadier to the untested US 29th Infantry Division. Vierville Draw General Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., where the 29th landed was featured in both "The Longest Day Assistant Division Commander, " and "Saving Private Ryan." 1st Infantry Division. The east- earned the first Medal of Honor of the division. Utah Beach ern half of the beach was as- D-Day Museum. Built on the very beach where the first signed to battle-hardened 1st American troops landed. A restored, original B26 Infantry Division. The Big “Marauder” bomber is among the displays. Overlord Muse- Red One stormed ashore and um. This privately-owned museum just outside the Cemetery began fighting for its life on a gate chronicles the period of the Allied landing until the liber- strip of beach near Coleville- ation of Paris. The collection was assembled by someone sur-Mer that had been marked who was both a witness to the conflict and involved in the the "Easy Red" on battle maps. reconstruction of Normandy. Personal items from individual Slowly, spurred by the individ- soldiers and armored fighting vehicles from the six armies in ual heroism of many individu- Normandy are presented in set displays showing over 35 vehi- als, the move French Schoolchildren & MHT Bus cles, tanks and guns. La Cambe. inland got un- At the somber German military derway. cemetery at La Cambe, 21,500 Pointe du German troops are buried, in- Hoc. The 2nd Ranger Battalion scaled the cluding Tiger Tank "Ace" Mi- 100-foot cliffs to eliminate the German heavy chael Wittmann. The design guns that could threaten both Utah and Oma- contrast with the Normandy ha beaches. At a high cost, they successfully American Cemetery is striking. defended against determined German coun- A Boeing PT17 Stearman and terattacks for two days. The Pointe du Hoc Piper L4 Grasshopper aircraft fly Ranger Monument was erected by the French from the airstrip in aerial displays to honor the incredible courage of the Rang- and offer sightseeing trips along ers. American Airborne Landings. In the early hours of the landing beaches. Pegasus Bridge and Museum. The June 6, 1944, the American airborne forces successfully exe- bridges across the River Orne and the Caen canal had to be cuted some of the most difficult and challenging missions of captured and held intact to enable the seaborne reinforcements D-Day. Their objectives were to secure the invasion right to cross. The result was textbook example of a successful flank against German counterattacks and secure the cause- operation. German Merville Battery. The gun battery had to ways off Utah Beach. 82nd Airborne Divison. Paratroopers be put out of action. The 100mm caliber guns could fire down of the 82nd were to capture objectives in the area west of the on to Sword Beach and the Allied fleet off the coast. Alt- Allied amphibious invasion, specifically the town of Sainte- hough successful, it was a Mère-Eglise and the La Fière bridge. Ste Mere Eglise. An- nearly disastrous operation. other site made famous by the film, "The Longest Day." A On display is a restored C- mannequin of a paratrooper hangs from the church spire. The 47 aircraft from D-day. Airborne Forces Museum has a C-47 troop transport aircraft Sword, Juno, Gold Beach- that flew in the invasion and a rare WACO glider on display. es. Drive along the British 101st Airborne Division. The 101st Airborne Division's ob- and Canadian landing jectives were to secure the four causeway exits behind Utah beaches. Contrast the ter- Beach to ensure the exit route for the 4th Infantry Division rain differences between from the beach later that morning. Brecourt Manor. The these beaches and Omaha/Utah beaches to be visited later. 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment’s assault by Easy Compa- Arromanches. The remains of one of the two artificial ny on the German howitzer battery that was disrupting the "Mulberry" harbors erected in the landing operation may still exit leading off Utah Beach was immortalized be seen. Port-en-Bessin. A pic- in the series “Band of Brothers”. It is often turesque fishing port that was cited as a classic example of small-unit tactics home to one of the 'Pipelines and leadership in overcoming a larger enemy Under the Sea' (PLUTO) pump- force. Utah Beach. The westernmost of the ing stations. Longes-sur-Mer five landing beaches. The beach was situated The German coastal defense on the east at the edge of a marshland zone battery at, probably the best re- which had been flooded by the Germans. On- maining example of such a bat- ly four causeways could be used to cross this tery in Normandy. Bayeux. The marshland and reach inlands. 4th Infantry first city of the Battle of Nor- Divison. The objective of the 4th, supported mandy to be liberated, and on 16 by airborne landings of the 82nd and 101st Veteran “Bangs” Tosline with “Big Red One” June 1944 General Charles de re-enactors at Normandy Cemetery on D-Day. Gaulle made the first of two major Jack Hennessey (USN), a Higgins Boat Cox- its timekeeping functions for speeches in Bayeux in which he made swain, made seven trips to Omaha Beach on the city. Joan of Arc. Joan clear that France sided with the Allies. D-Day 6 June. was captured by Anglo- The buildings in Bayeux were virtually This trip was Burgundian forces, tried for untouched during the Battle of Norman- with his wife, witchcraft and heresy and dy, the German forces being fully in- daughter burned at the stake in 1431 volved in defending Caen from the Al- & MHT. in the city square. Hotel: lies. Hotel: Caen Moderne. Meals: B Concorde Montparnasse - Included each day. L & D - On Paris. Meals: B - Included. Own. D - Included last night. L & D - On Own. Day 7 - June 7 - Paris.